 Well, praise the Lord. Are you glad to be in the house of God tonight? Amen. So good to see you in different setting tonight, but boy, we're glad to be in God's house. Stand with us all over this sanctuary. You had said I was glad when they said unto me, let us go up into the house. And I believe that God's just going to take us up and up and higher and higher. And tonight we are in store for a wonderful word, a great visitation of God's spirit. And I can promise you, you have come to the right place. Can we give God a great big hand tonight for the privilege to be able to be in God's presence? I want us to go to the Lord in prayer. Whenever you walked in tonight, you should have received a prayer and praise or was able to pick one up. There are a number of needs represented all over this house. And we know that the Lord is able. If you came in here tonight with the need in your life, I want you to know that the Lord is faithful and he knows exactly what you need. And he's able to reach down his hand and touch you. If you need strength, I want you to receive strength tonight. If you need peace, just receive peace tonight. Amen. As a child of God, it's a gift to us. And all we need to do is just receive it. You don't have to beg for it. Just say, Lord, I received tonight your strength. Lord, I received tonight your peace. Amen. Can we just do that tonight? Grab that prayer and praise, hold that in your hand. And let's just bind together and let's trust God for great things. And whatever you have need of tonight, you receive from the Lord. Amen. Almighty God is such an honor to be in your presence. What a privilege it is to be in the house of God tonight. Thank you so much for your goodness. Thank you so much for your grace. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege that we have. Lord, to call upon you. Thank you, Lord, for our great privilege as a child of God. The privilege of prayer to be able to communicate with you, to talk with you. And not only that, but Lord, you speaking to us, you ministering to us, you touching us. And Father, there's many here tonight and many that are represented on this prayer and praise that need just that, that need a touch in their life, that have a need. God, it needs a miracle. And we're asking God that you would do that. Every name represented here tonight, will you give strength? Will you make a way out of no way? Lord, your congregation, your people, the sheep of this pastor that's here tonight, will you reach down your hand and give abundant strength, abundant peace? In helping their time of trouble, that not one person here tonight will leave the same way. Oh, mighty God, reach down your hand and touch this service. As the teaching of your word goes forth, let your word accomplish what you would have it soon to do. Lord, that it will not return void today, but that word will be applied to our hearts. God, we thank you today for what you're going to do. We lift our voice and worship. We lift our voice and praise. Come on all over this channel tonight. Will you lift your hands and just worship Him for the next few moments? Father, we worship you. We praise you. We thank you. You're so good. You're so faithful, Lord. Thank you, Lord, that you've never felt this. You've never forsaken us. Thank you, Lord, that you're the God that keeps His promises, that the promises of God are yay and they're amen. We give you praise tonight. Oh, credit for what you're going to do. We call it forth. We call it done and we just say thank you tonight in the name of Jesus. Come on, let's do that. Let's give God a great big hand of thanks and appreciation. We thank you. We thank you. We thank you. We thank you. You're good and you're faithful. Amen, amen. When you look to the left and to the right, shake somebody's hand. Let them know you're glad to see Him in God's house tonight. So good to see you tonight. Come on, fellowship with somebody. Let them know you're glad to see Him in God's house. And amen, amen, amen, amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. So good once again to see you tonight. And if you know there's no better place to be than in Wednesday night Bible study. Come on, how many of you has been enjoying the teaching that's been taking place? Last, listen, I'm just telling you, I don't know how he's going to talk last Wednesday night. But looking at this study tonight, navigating the next season, responsibility, man, I'm excited about this. So we just better buckle up and get ready tonight. A number of things that are taking place. But before we get to some of the announcements, we want to welcome those that are joining us tonight. If this is your first time, thank you for being at Pace Assembly in our Bible study tonight. And we're so glad that you're here. If you're looking for a home church to be a part of, look no further, you come back and be a part of the great things that are taking place right here at Pace Assembly. We always say it's not a cliche, but Pace is the place. God's doing some great things at Pace Assembly. Amen. How many of you know that tonight? Amen, amen. And those of you that are joining us online, thank you so much for joining us. People from literally all over the world, we're thrilled that you're with us tonight. You stay in tune with us for the entirety of the service tonight. Let me give you a few things that are taking place. Do not forget this Sunday is our children's Christmas program and make sure that your children attend the rehearsals. And so this weekend's gonna be an exciting weekend. It always is when we're able to see the children on stage and they're operating and they're gifts and they're ministering to us. And it's just a great time of the year to be able to experience that. So make sure that you are here Sunday and also the 2 p.m. matinee that follows on Sunday makes sure that you're a part of that. Those of you that are gonna be participating in the outreach right after that, right after the matinee will be our Christmas assistance gift distribution. That's gonna be an exciting time as once again PACE assembly reaches out to our local community. Pastor shared a little bit with you on Sunday and we were able to look at what's taking place at Guatemala. That's the global outreach. And now this Sunday we're getting ready for the local outreach. And so exciting of what's gonna take place. If you have not received the handout for tonight, make sure that you pick that up or you can get on the PACE app. If you haven't downloaded that I would encourage you to download that PACE app and right on the front of that app you'll see study notes or handout. You can follow along with Pastor tonight as he teaches and you'll enjoy that as well. And then right after you complete that there's a button on there that you can email those notes right to your email and then you can print it out and then you can have it and use it for devotion for the rest of the week. Amen, isn't that, how many of you love technology? My goodness, amen. So praise God tonight. It's a great privilege to be able to give to the work of the Lord. Thank you so much for your faithfulness and giving to the work of the kingdom. Some great things are happening and are yet to be done. And your faithful giving helps that to be accomplished. So thank you so much on the screen. There's several ways in which you can give and whatever is most convenient for you. So let's pray tonight. Let's believe God to bless the tithe and the offering and bless this service tonight as Pastor comes. Father, we thank you Lord for the privilege that we have to be in your presence once again. Thank you for what you're going to do tonight. We're asking that you reach down your hand, bless the gift and to give her a like. Let it go forth to meet the needs of the ministry in Jesus' name and everyone says amen. How about that? Good man. Hey everybody. Hello online for all of you that are watching around the world. So glad to have you. Would you welcome all of our online guests that are joining us tonight? So glad that you are here this evening. I want you to get your Bibles and open up the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter number one, several passages of scripture there. You can bring me down a little bit. Thank you so much. We are in the kids chapel. For those of you that have never been in here, this is where a kids church goes on every Sunday morning and they're having a great time out there tonight. Every year we have to come in here because they're doing their last minute rehearsals, getting ready for the upcoming Christmas program coming Sunday and you won't want to miss that. I promise you that there will be something that takes place in there that not only is going to touch your heart but just to watch the kids. Sometimes some really funny things can take place and I just want to let you know if you don't come to church for any other reason, if you'll bring your video and you're on your phone, you might be able to capture something that you could win $100,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos. Look at y'all. We ain't going to buy a lottery ticket this week, dear. We're going to church and get it. Some of y'all didn't laugh for nothing. Just smiling at somebody, making it feel good sitting beside you. Amen. Some of y'all ain't happy. So, turn to your neighbor right now. Just tell him this right now. Just tell him you should thank God. I don't have COVID. So that's good. I'm good. I'm good. You're good. I'm good. Oh boy. It's going to be a fun night tonight. I'm telling you. Well, I need you to be praying for Pastor T tonight. He is a little bit handicapped but he's pressing through this evening. He was working up there. They're doing a bunch of stuff upstairs and he was working on new props and new things for this coming January and all of that and a pipe came down and hit him right in the mouth and cracked his bottom tooth so to a degree that they're going to have to take that out. And then there's another one that's there. They're kind of worried about what's going on with that. And so being the compassionate father that I was, I started singing all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Horrible. It was wrong. Wrong is what it was. But he's pressing through tonight up there. This is their last service of the year and they brought back the core drama team and they're doing a drama up there tonight with his message worth the wait and it's going to be a blessing up there. I'm excited about what God's doing. You don't hear a lot about all that happens in other locations, but he's been entertaining probably about 70 to 80 students up there, most of which parents do not come to this church. Over the past several weeks he's seen folks, students get saved and given their life to Jesus and I'm just telling you God's doing great things. When that kind of thing happens in the youth department and what's happening in children's ministry, you can look for revival to take place at any given church, amen. So you pray for Pastor T. He's going to have to endure it. He said, dad, please do not put me up to an announcements this weekend. But it was painful. They came in here and showed me his mouth and I started hurting all over. So you keep him in your prayers. He's going to go have that taken care of next Tuesday and hopefully everything will be where it needs to be. I told him he'll eat some corn like never before and now I'm just telling you, amen. I'm so sorry. I went up there and checked on him. I want y'all to know that. That's the reason why I'm a little late getting in here. You happy and you know it tonight? Yeah. Amen. Christmas is on the horizon. So if you're buying anything, there's nothing in it but you can get a shipping container for about 75 bucks. Nothing in it. But so I just encourage you to be in all of the services that are taking place over the coming weeks, especially for Ken Lake communion service. That's the one special one, especially with the kids as well. That's always a fun time for all that's taking place. And then I know Pastor Jason mentioned some of this probably to you, but I just want to tell you, we're going to be redoing the platform. We've got a lot of things we are having to change around and rewire and all that kind of thing. So the last Sunday morning of this year in December will be an online service only. We're gonna have the platform so tore up that we're not gonna be able to make it happen to get everything done in that period of time. So this is the time that we can do that, especially a lot of people traveling all. So you can join us right there beside the Christmas tree in your own home and we're gonna bring the word of God to you. It's gonna be a great time. So just mark that down on your calendar and other things that are happening. Revive 22, it's coming up. We're excited about our special guests that are coming in. Confirmed today that the Crab family are gonna be with us on that Sunday night, the night and they're coming in for revival. They're coming in for an expectation and I'm bringing them back in here because they were with me in the very first revive that ever took place. So I wanted to have them back in. I'll be preaching on that Sunday night. They'll be singing and then the subsequent services will take place and it will have a peak when we come to the 30th Pastor Sam Luke joining us. Every Sunday night there's gonna be prayer for the sick, laying hands on people, praying earnestly. All these guys know, all these ministers, men of God are coming in here with one purpose and that is to let the anointing of God flow through their lives and lay hands upon and believe God and bring a word that comes from heaven. We're not looking for just having a few meetings. We're looking at having a whole January that sets the course for the year. Can you say a man to that? And then Wednesday nights is gonna be Bible prophecy in the forecast. I don't want you to miss that so mark that on your calendar and I want you to get ready for an upcoming night to honor Israel. We're still putting some things together for that but I will hopefully have that announcement ready for you this coming weekend for what we're planning and it will be probably the apex. It was really hard to be able to top Irving Roth last year and they're still talking about it in the Kufai rank and file they told me just today because we did the night honor Israel on Super Bowl Sunday night and had a thousand people in this auditorium and that was off the chain for them. They couldn't believe we even did it on Super Bowl Sunday night and then that was the last one that we had but I believe that this one is gonna reach a little bit higher and you'll certainly wanna be a part of it so don't miss all of that we'll bring those announcements to you. Right now open your Bibles up to the book of Joshua chapter number one and I hope that you've got that handout for all of you that are watching online that you're ready to be able to go with us here tonight in part two of navigating the next season. I'm talking about coming into this year of 2022 and what we need to do to prepare ourselves. There's a few things that I believe the Lord has laid on my heart last week dealing with charting the course and being able to get a plan together. I want you to know the reason you'll either, you will either plan to succeed or you plan to fail. Okay, if you don't have a plan in your life for where you're going then any win will get you there and the problem is it will be a contrary win and that win will take you off course in whichever way that you want to go but if you intend on serving the Lord then there's some things you've got to do and set the plan in place and tonight I want to take you a little bit further because the greatest issues that are taking place today deal with the subject that we're going to be dealing with here tonight because freedom ladies and gentlemen is not free and so I'm going to go ahead and give you this top word that we're going to study here tonight and it deals with responsibility. So I want us to take a look at it this evening. Father in heaven we thank you for the privilege to stand before this wonderful group of people and those that are watching online. Pray you give us understanding and knowledge strengthen every tired physical body here tonight and give healing because the word of God is true and we ask you for that anointing that makes the difference in Jesus mighty name. Everybody said a good amen. I want to just use as a backdrop some passages of scripture that you can follow along with I believe is there on your paper and I want you to be able to take a look at it this evening in Joshua chapter number one we started in there we're using this as a backdrop for this entire lesson series. The Bible says that after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass that the Lord spake to Joshua the son of none Moses minister saying Moses my servant is dead now therefore rise. That's a good thing to do. Some people wake up but they don't rise. Until the second alarm clock. Come on say amen. Arise go over this Jordan thou and all this people unto the land which I give them even to the children of Israel every place. I'm talking about going into 22 now every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon that have I given unto you as I said unto Moses for the wilderness of this Lebanon even to the great river river Euphrates all the land of the Hittites and into the great sea to war the going down of the sun shall be your coast there shall not any man be able to stand before the all the days of thy life as I was with Moses so I will be with thee I will not fail thee nor forsake thee this is some of the most encouraging passage of scripture you should read this every day be strong and of good courage or unto this people shall thou divide and inheritance the land. Now I want you to notice this they haven't even marched in there yet and they're already talking about dividing up the land that'll make every real estate agent in the place ready to go here tonight which I swear unto their fathers to give them only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee for not from it to the right hand or to the left that they'll may as prosper whether so ever thou goest. Look at verse eight this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shall meditate therein day and night meditate in there day and night you shall meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. Don't just meditate on it do it for then the results of meditating and doing the word of God then thou shall make thy way prosperous and then thou shall have good success. Look at verse number 11. Joshua commanded the officers of the people saying pass through the host and command the people saying prepare you vitals, get you some food for within three days you shall pass over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God give with you to possess it. This is important for you to get a hold of right here. I want you to flip over to chapter number three real quick. I want you to just look at what takes place. Chapter number two comes. They go in and spy out Jericho. They find out that Rahab is in there and all that's taking place. Chapter number three, they come back and give this report and Joshua in verse number five Joshua said to the people, sanctify yourself. Set yourselves apart, sanctify yourself for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. This is very important what's about to take place here. Now watch what happens. He says, Joshua spake unto the priest saying take up the Ark of the Covenant, pass over before the people and they took up the Ark of the Covenant went before the people and the Lord said unto Joshua this day I began to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel that they may know that as I was with Moses though I will be with thee. He goes on to describe what's taking place and comes in and they step out into the Jordan River and it rolls back. Notice that before in Moses time the Red Sea rolled back before they put their feet in it. This time they had to step into the river before they could see the miracle take place. I want you to get that right there. That's a difference right there but it didn't make any difference. Both of them roll back at the command of God. They bear the Ark verse number 15 went in there the banks roll back and it was harvest time. They all passed clean over, marvelous. They go in in chapter number four and they discover that the priests are now going to take 12 stones and make a memorial so that forever the children of Israel and those that are the children of the children can go back and say this is the place where we marched over. This is the place that God delivered us. Wherever there are significant places of deliverance in your life you should make a marker and let your family and your children's children remember that continually. Pull the pictures out and remind them this is what happened because in remembrance, hear what I'm telling you in remembering God and what he has done it literally gives you courage and strength to fight the next battle. That's not part of this lesson but it was good anyway. So chapter number five comes up and this is a joyous chapter right here. So get ready. Verse number two. At that time the Lord said unto Joshua make these sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him sharp knives and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the four skins. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise. All the people that came out of Egypt listened to this that were males even all the men of war died in the wilderness. By the way after they came out of Egypt. Well this is the whole group that God said because you disobeyed me you're gonna die in the wilderness. Now watch this. Now all the people that came out were circumcised but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt them they had not circumcised. Well the children of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness till all the people that were men of war which came out of Egypt were consumed because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord and to whom the Lord swear that he would not show them the land which the Lord swear into their fathers that he would give to us a land flowing with milk and honey. And their children whom he raised up in their stead them Joshua circumcised for they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised them by the way and it came to pass when they had done circumcising all the people that they abode in their place in the camp till they were whole. And the Lord said to Joshua this day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off of you wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal and to this day. So and it goes on down to say that after this event took place after this circumcision took place that the manna ceased and they ate of the old corn or they ate of the promised land corn from that time forward. A lot of things changed in these few chapters right here from the transition of going from the wilderness into the promised land. And it affected the lives of people so greatly and they had walked in that wilderness for so long until a whole group of desert babies were raised up that had to go through the rights of circumcision for identity sake. That was their salvation identifying with God because the uncertain, what did David say of the giant, Deliah, you uncircumcised Philistine and God said I want a sign of circumcision to let the people know that there is a different group of people here. Now he goes into the spiritual realm of that and the New Testament let us know that it is the circumcision of the heart that Paul describes to us to cut away that that is fleshy everything that is not like God to identify with God. So with all that background, let me take you into this here tonight. God delivered the children of Israel, the Hebrews from the bondage of Egypt. That would be classified as being saved. He led them through the wilderness so that they could know him and learn him and grow and sanctify them, set them apart. It is where you learn in the wilderness, it's where you learn accountability and character. What you think you know, the wilderness will prove it. That's the reason why many people opt out of wilderness experiences. I don't want anybody to tell me what to do and I certainly don't want to go through any pain but I've got news for you, pain teaches you more than a party does any day. How many of you understand what I'm talking about? When you've walked through it, nobody can tell you any different. This is why it's so important that you get saved, come out of Egypt, but yet Egypt has got to come out of you. It is a process of sanctification. Setting us apart under God and it's twofold. It is separating us from the world and then setting us unto God separate, holy for him and whatever God calls holy is separated unto him. It's not to be used for anything or anyone else. That's the reason why when Jesus bought us, he separated us. He took us out of darkness into his marvelous life. Now not believing God and not moving on with God, doubting and murmuring and complaining is what caused the children of Israel to get stuck in the wilderness and ladies and gentlemen, it's not just some physical wilderness but there are people here perhaps and watching online that are stuck in their mind in the wilderness. Hopefully tonight I can help you come out of that because that's the place where people operate by feelings and not by faith. Feed me, take care of me, give me some water, give me some meat and what did God do? All through the wilderness, God took care of them. They didn't have to do anything to get what I'm saying. So here we go for something for you to write on your paper. God will never give you what he hasn't qualified you to manage. The Bible says in the book of Genesis where we find all of our doctrinal belief in that one book of Genesis is this, that he said he looked for the man, the one that would fill the place that would till the land but there was no man so God sent no ring. There'll be no ring until someone is standing there to take responsibility for the land. Responsibility for the house. Responsibilities for the finances. Responsibility to do what you need to do and what you should do. Now that you have been delivered saved, walk through the wilderness and coming into the Promised Land. Some people feel like that the Promised Land is heaven but that's not true. There were giants in the land and they had to be driven out and God allowed that to take place. And this is the reason because God is setting us up so that we will take responsibility and be able to know him on a different level. God is not our sugar daddy. God is not a stimulus check. God is a God of order. He's a God of character. He has the nature that he, in fact, Jesus said it like this, I work and my father works also. So if you think you're gonna get out of work, you're not gonna fit very well into the kingdom. Write this down. The wilderness life trains us to live in freedom. The wilderness life trains us to live in freedom whereas freedom is found in the Promised Land. Well you said there were giants there, yes? But the activity of what was taking place in the wilderness prepares us to live in freedom in the Promised Land. Let me give you an example. So you've got a house and you've got cars and you've got a garage and you own all that inside of your house and you've got a trash can. And that trash can belongs to you. And you ate something and you threw it in a trash can and you ate something else and threw it in the trash can. And after a while the trash can got full. Now someone, and it really doesn't matter because after a while it stinks, someone has got to take responsibility. Well it ain't my job. Well I don't care if it's your job or not. I wanna know is anybody gonna take the trash out because after a while, after a while the rats and everything else will call this home and we will be out because we can't stand distinct no more. Well that's your job. Well quite frankly I think it's all of our job. Responsibility. Hainan or the Promised Land demands character. Character, freedom, responsibility is not looking for an opt out. It's looking for what to do next. Now let me preface this. Let me just give you this overshot right here of why this particular message and lesson is coming into view for preparing you for the next season of Navigating. Because we are in a country right now that is blaming everybody else for what we should be taking responsibility for ourselves. And whatever your view is on shots and everything else, vaccine, that's your personal view but my problem is people do not wanna take personal responsibility for their health, for their future, for whatever that it may be. They're waiting on someone else to tell them what to do but I don't want nobody telling me what to do. And if we fool around and don't take responsibility for our individual self and our country because in our country, freedom, don't let me get ahead of myself. Real freedom, real freedom that happened, what's happening here fellas? Have no advancement, right? Real freedom demands preparation. Stay with me up there in the top, okay? Real freedom demands preparation. The purpose of all you're going through is a transformation, a preparation for the next season. You do not get ready for the next season in that season. You prepare now for the next season. Well I'll wait till January and we'll start, no, no, no, start now. If you don't start now, I promise you you won't start when you get to January 22. The transformation of the mind, I beseech you therefore, brother and by the mercies of God. By the mercies of God, you got plenty of opportunity. I beseech you therefore, brother and by the mercies of God that you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world. God is telling us in Romans 12, do not allow the thinking of this world to get into your head and put you into a box and into a form. You are to be transformed by the renewing of your mind through the word of God that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Why is that so important for us today? It's more important for us today than it was years and years ago. I'm just gonna tell you because now one decision out of you could make a change in your life that you would live the consequences throughout. Are you hearing what I'm saying? One decision now could change everything for you. So let me give you an example. And in the month of January, when I'm doing these Wednesday night forecasts, I'm gonna bring some of this to you but right now, if you wanna see what it's gonna look like if we continue to relinquish our responsibility, we will lose our freedom. If you don't take the trash out, you'll lose. If you don't take care of that, you're not gonna take care of the house. You don't take care of the house, you're gonna lose the house. Why? Because whatever you don't manage, you lose. If you don't manage your car, change the oil, you'll lose it. Are you hearing me? This is so vital for us. So if you want a picture of what it looks like, and if you go online and do this, I did this today for whatever reason, YouTube said, we want you to know, they stopped me before I went any further. In fact, I didn't have time to go any deeper but I knew what the subject matter was. But they said warning, if you go any further, YouTube and Google will track you. Point four. And I was pulling up video that I'm gonna show to you in the next month. It's already happening now in what could be considered internment camps in Australia. Where three teenage boys jumped the fence of a COVID camp last week and the police were stopping cars and looking in trunks and everywhere for these three boys to arrest them and bring them back and they had to start their 14 day quarantine all over again. Now, if you don't take responsibility because why am I saying that? All you gotta do is look in history, ladies and gentlemen. And the only reason why that we are free today is because our forefathers took responsibility for what needed to happen and you and I are enjoying that tonight because of the mercies of God. I'm just gonna tell you what's being run over by our constitution and we don't have leaders up there that are going to take responsibility to stay true to it. They're willing to run right over the top of it and if you don't stand up at some point and take responsibility, they'll run right over the top of you and turn this country into Australia. That's the reason why I'm bringing this lesson of responsibility to you. Because one of the main ingredients you've gotta realize is that freedom is really an attitude. Freedom is a mentality that prepared you for the next step of taking responsibility. What was God doing to the children of Israel? He was taking them from Egypt through the wilderness and training them how to live in freedom. See, as a child, you're training your children and you say, come on, you know, Johnny, I don't know why Johnny gets it all the time, but Johnny, come on, Johnny, take the garbage out. Now it's what are you gonna give me? If I'd have said that to my father, he said I allowed you to go outside. Oh, man, no money. I'm paying all the bills up in here. You, did you eat? Yeah, okay. Did you sleep in that bed that I own back there? I own that bed. See, this is the problem. I'm gonna show you that right in the scripture. I got scripture for all this right here. Sir, all you Bible theologians that wanna rise them up, don't worry, I just got news for you. There's Bible for all of this. We take the child and we train the child, train them up in the way they should go and when they're old they won't depart from it. What do you, you keep the boundaries real close. Why? Because there's going to come a day when the boundaries of mom and dad's house are gonna be gone, and now they've gotta live in responsibility, which means you have to learn to pay the car note. And if you didn't train them on how to handle money, now they're freedom with it. Just write a check. Used to be, now it's made easier for them, just swipe the debit card and they're swiping it. Next thing you know, they get a notice. You're not only overdrawn, but we pulled money out of every account here, right? Because they didn't learn the value of money in the training and the wilderness so that when they got free, they went crazy. Now, the only reason why many of you are not saying amen here right now is because you are the product of what I have just described as you were growing up. You're the illustrated sermon for me here tonight. Moses got ready, he got you to go through the wilderness, he took you through that, God provided everything for them in the wilderness. He was training them, he was sanctifying them. He said, they wanted meat, so I flew quail down in there. They wanted water, so I busted it out of a rock. They wanted some bread, so I sent manna down there and all they had to do is reach out of the tent. Everything was provided. Watch this, even their clothes did not wear out and neither did their shoes. But the Bible says in Joshua chapter number five that when they got to that place of Gilgal, the Bible emphatically states, then the manna ceased. Help me not get ahead of myself. Let me take you through this. Y'all still with me right here? Okay, I'm talking about circumcision so I don't want anybody to be squirming or anything like that, except for the men. Circumcised the children that came out of Egypt, he said, and they have this God who provides everything for them step by step. Now it's time for them to take responsibility and what does he tell them to do? I'm not gonna leave you, I'm not gonna forsake you, but here's what you're gonna have to do. Now, you're not gonna look up now and see a cloud of my presence and say, well, God's there, I'm good. And you're not gonna look up at night and see fire and say, well, there's God, I'm good, it'll be all right. And you're not gonna have Moses to be able to go before me and do all your praying and reading for you. Now you're gonna have to meditate in my word for yourself. So I'm cutting off all the freebies. And now you're gonna have to cook it for yourself. First thing that Joshua told him, he said, prepare you some vitals for all of you that are in South, prepare you some vitals. Prepare you some vitals, why? Because now you're gonna have to meditate in the word of God, you're gonna have to think on what I said and taught you when we were walking around that mountain all that time and I was writing with my finger up there in the mountain and teaching Moses and he brought that law down to you. Now you're gonna have to take that law and you're gonna have to think on it and let it be applied into your life, you're gonna have to meditate on it. But if you'll do that, you'll have good success. Look at this, you're gonna possess the land, the giants are gonna be run out. I've already given you the land, as a matter of fact, I've already divided up the land on who's gonna get what and when God makes a promise, he doesn't hold back on it. So tonight, ladies and gentlemen, even as I speak, matter of fact, I was on a phone call today with Christians United for Israel, with our former UN ambassador, Nikki Haley and she was describing on the phone call what it's gonna take for the future of what's happening for Israel and so forth and she said this, watch this, she said Israel because of the Abrahamic Accords that the previous president put into place which are irrevocable has been the best peace plan that has ever been put forward because now the Arab states are coming together to support Israel because they know Iran is an enemy, China is an enemy and Russia is an enemy but the Abrahamic Accords protects them from all of that and when they show their support to Israel, it will keep China, Russia and Iran out of their borders. You see that? Well, let me take you to the scripture. The Bible says whoever blesses Israel, whoever curses Israel, go with me. So what happens? He says you meditate in that word day and night and God will be with you and he will take, you're gonna take responsibility. Now look at this, God said I'm gonna be with you. He didn't say I'm gonna be for you, doing it for you. You need to understand tonight, God is with you but he's not gonna do it for you. You need to get up and get a job. You wanna eat, you gotta get up and get a job. Come on somebody. If you wanna have something nice, you're gonna have to take responsibility for yourself and this has nothing to do with who you are, your status. Are you with me? You said cook some vitals for yourself, prepare yourself and cut away the things that you don't need to have. He says because you need to be identified with me and when you do that, you're gonna be identified with me. And he said by the way, you need to learn how to fight because you're gonna have to fight your way through. Are you all with me out there? The man who sees the Bible says. So here's something else for you to write down. Responsibility is the key to true freedom. Responsibility is the key to true freedom. Somebody said, oh, I'm free. You're not free too, your mind is free because your physical body might be running around free but if your mind's not free, you're still locked up. You're still messed up. So responsibility, the moment that I start taking responsibility for myself and the things that I am supposed to be responsible for, I just wanna let all of you know as an American citizen, every one of us are responsible for America sitting in this room. And if you don't manage it, you will lose it. Are you hearing what I'm saying? You're tired of spinning your wheels, then it's time to take responsibility. Responsibility can be broken into three parts and here it is, the very word responsibility. First of all, read, meaning to return to the original. It's the same terminology that you see throughout the scripture in theological terms, repent. Repent means to return. Pent, to return back to the highest pinnacle, the highest place. So when you repent, you are literally returning back to the highest possible level that God has in store for your life. Responsibility is read to return to the original. Secondly, the word spawns or the phrase in there in that word means sponsor or to give. Think of a sponsor. Think of somebody sponsoring someone. Think of a scholarship for a college student. They're sponsoring that individual. Oh, we're gonna sponsor this little league team. We're gonna sponsor this event, whatever that it may be. And then finally, ability, which is exactly what it is, the power to perform, strength, capability, potential. All right? So when you put all that together, the term or the word responsibility has a whole different connotation. In fact, if you wanna write it out in the literal terms, this is what it actually means. It means the ability to increase and return to the original source after fulfilling the assignment by the power given to you. In other words, when you say I'm gonna give you, you're gonna give somebody responsibility or you're gonna give to them a responsibility, your child, you know, or every Monday you're gonna take out the trash. Well, first of all, there's a whole list of connotation and words that can describe what responsibility is. It's trustworthiness, it's stewardship, it's accountability, multiple other terms you find in the word of God that deals with responsibility. You're gonna know very quickly if they didn't take the trash out because something's stinking. But you're training them. And so you're not all over their case, you're just telling them, hey, did you forget to take the trash? All right, go take the trash out. It's Monday, it's trash day. You're training them on the small things to take responsibility so when they're older, you won't have to still be taking the garbage out for them. Are you hearing what I'm saying? So why is that so important? Because God gives every one of us a seed and he does not want the seed back in its original form. So when you say I'm gonna take responsibility for something, when God gives you a seed, he expects a tree or a forest, not the seed. Are you hearing what I'm saying? I'm gonna be responsible for it. All right, so we'll get to it. The Lord helping us here in Matthew 25, where the talents are there and the one God takes the one seed, covers it up, buries it, waits for him to return because he's coming. And he's already told us he's expecting something from you that's greater than what he gave you. So don't tell me that you're gonna pastor a church and it's not growing and nobody's getting saved, nobody's getting healed, nobody's getting delivered, nobody's being filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Something's wrong with that because God wants something more than what he gave you in its original state. You are to increase by the ability of God on the inside of you. Colossians tells us it is hidden in Christ. In other words, I need to find out what's hidden on the inside of me because if God gave me, I'm about to preach now, if God gave me a seed and he gave me that thing that he entrusted to me, then that means there's something on the inside of me that he's already given me to give me the responsibility, the ability to increase that seed or he would have never given it to me to start with. So whatever your responsibility is, the first thing you need to understand is is that your responsibility is not the same as somebody else's responsibility. That's the reason why you don't need to blame somebody else if you've failed to do what God's told you to do. I think I'm preaching right now. How many of you know this would do good for that Sunday morning crowd? Come on out there. You know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about when God gives you an assignment, it's up to you to fulfill it and if it doesn't get done, then it will not be done. And God said, here's a seed, I want it, I want you to give it back to me. I'm coming to check on you. I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna be, I want you to be accountable to me because whatever God gives me is always gonna be more than what is apparent. Don't hold that seed in your hand and then when he returns, well, here's your seed back. You know what he called them? An unfaithful steward. And then what happens? We'll get there, the Lord willing. He takes the one seed from the one and gives it to the guy who had the most. And now we become jealous because God took my one seed and not only that, he didn't give it. Come on now, this goes against all this equality stuff that's going on today and all this equity stuff that's going on where everybody gonna be the same that is nothing more than a cloak for socialism. And I want you to know that Bible right there is not Marxist and it's not socialist and it's not communist. The Bible said to whom much is given, much is required. So when God gives you a seed, you better be getting it in the ground and find it out where's the forest that he's expecting for me? I'm gonna tell you, it makes me it makes me itch when I don't see this church growing like it needs to. Same thing with your family. What's happening in your family? Are you growing spiritually? Are you growing financially? Are you holding on to the seed? Are you hoarding it? Cause I'm gonna just tell you freedom has risk. We'll get to this next week. I'm gonna go ahead and give you the word for next week. Courage. You're gonna need courage going into 2022. Cause right now, right now, they're selling to us another variant that is not even what the previous ones have been but we're gonna wait and see. Well, I'm not gonna wait and see. I'm gonna go ahead and live my life. God gave me a life. And if he takes me out of here, I'll be even. Paul said to be absent from this body is be present with the Lord. Paul got in such a place that he said it like this. I really wanna be with you but I really wanna be there. I'm really betwixt of both places. Well, the believer, you win either way. Now, if all your mind is about this land down here, you might wanna check your salvation because freedom has risk. Please, can I take you for just a moment? Oh, my time's running. I just wanna take you for just a moment, take the video of your mind and go all the way back to the beginning of this nation and the people that signed the documentation that said we are ready to give our life, our fortune and our sacred honor and laid it on the line. Preachers who laid it on the line, leaders who laid it on the line and said we are willing to die so that we can be free. We're sick and tired of the government of Britain telling us what we can and cannot do, how we can drink tea or how we can't drink tea. Haxing us to such a degree that I can't even fill up my tank of gas with the money that I earned this past week. Somebody, oh, my god. I'm just gonna tell you Marco Rubio's office called me a few weeks ago and said, hey, Mr. Rubio, Senator Rubio wants to come down there and see you after the first of the year. I said, come on down. I got a few words for him. Come on, somebody. Because if somebody didn't stand up and take responsibility, we're watching the degradation of it day by day. But the devil is a liar. You know who rose up in that time? Don't you let him tell you there's a bunch of deists. There were Christians who stood up and took the word of God and took responsibility. Read your history, ladies and gentlemen, at the very befounding in Plymouth Rock and where they landed in all that original Jamestown colony. They got together and you know what they did? Check it out. They put together a little plan and they said, all right, we're gonna farm this area and this is where people are gonna be. And it was basically the same as socialist mentality. And you know what they found out? It don't work. But when you give everybody an opportunity to be responsible over their own property, they will raise a family, raise a farm, take care. There'll be better neighbors. Come on, somebody. They won't be jumping the fence and stealing from somebody. They won't be painting on the wall of the Baptist church just because they don't like what they said. They will respect it because God is honored. People take responsibility and suddenly we can live in a promised land that God gave to us. I wish I had some help in here, but that's all right. What did God say? He said, it's a land flowing with milk and honey. But it's gonna be some pain in there. And I'm gonna need to have some people. Look at what he told him. Out of all the scriptures, God says to Joshua, be of good courage. You're gonna need it. You're gonna need it next year. Because I promise you, they're not gonna let this thing go. But I'm just gonna tell you, I worked hard for that little piece of ground that I've got. It ain't much, but I've worked hard for it. And so did you, if you did. Stop trying to, stop trying to go off on the line. You know, somebody told me just today, yeah, so and so won the lottery. Well, if you're waiting on that to happen, if you, let me put it like this. If you're waiting on that ship to come in, it's slower than the shipping containers from China right now. We've been waiting on some stuff that we ordered three months ago, and it's still in here. I called him yesterday, he said, hey, let's get it on. We already paid for it, let's get it on. Come on, somebody. That's taking responsibility. Freedom demands work and responsibility because there's giants in the land. God has no reason to finance your nothingness. Go away with all this stimulus check stuff. How long will that go on? That's your money. So my staff was telling me the other day, you know, we went ahead and had the, we took the front end of the finances for the kids and now we're getting the notification. We're gonna have to pay for it on the tax bill when it comes in April. So that ain't nothing free. Somebody's paying for it. Have you looked at your paycheck and pay stubbed lately? 40% of every dollar. How many of you know how long that can that last? Somebody's gotta take responsibility. Responsibility always demands a response. Let me say it like this real quick. You ever go to your kids and go, okay, did you take out the garbage? Come on, answer me. You're like Samuel that comes up on King Saul. What is the bleeding of the smell coming out of that garbage can? Last night's pork chops. I know you didn't take out the garbage. What me was him. Okay, son, I know you wanna blame somebody but you're an only child. I wasn't talking about my brother who was my daddy. He didn't take out the garbage. God will sponsor the growth if we're willing to take responsibility. Now watch what happens. Responsibility always attracts resources. The moment you start taking responsibility, God will add more to you. See, we wanna pray off the stuff that we can't carry but how about praying on more than what God has given to you before? Bring it on, God. I'll be faithful over a few things. You can make me ruler over many. Are you with me? Freedom, the freedom that God gives to us is a blessing to us. It is our Eden. It's our place of pleasure and delight. Come on, somebody. But sin broke the blessing and that's when the blame game started. Started in the Garden of Eden. God comes down, said, Adam, where are you? Say, he said, Adam. You know why? Because he left Adam in charge, not Eve. Are you hearing me? Adam, where are you? Well, we hid. Why'd you hide? Because we were, come on, somebody. You can say it out loud, come on. We were, well, we were naked, but y'all focused on the naked. I was thinking about the other emotion. Come on, where do you think they got that show's name afterwards? Anyway, naked and afraid. There it is. We were naked and afraid. Well, stop just a minute. I think that afraid thing has come back. Why? Because somebody didn't go to God, they went to the bushes and didn't take responsibility. And so what happens when sin comes in, everybody wants to blame somebody else. Adam, where are you? I'm over here, but I didn't mean to go over here. I mean, it's this woman you gave me. Eve, what about it? It ain't me. It's the serpent's fault. And the devil goes, how are they blaming it on me? I just told them they could eat of this and be God. They're the ones who took it. And God held the man responsible. Why? Because he did not give the law to Eve. He gave it to Adam. And Adam was to give it to Eve. Come on, somebody. Adam was supposed to give it to Eve. He failed to take the responsibility to make sure that his wife was not in the wrong place without his covering. Are you hear what I'm saying? How did the devil get to Eve? Adam wasn't taking his proper responsibility. Here's what the Bible says, delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart. That word delight there is a direct word connotation to Eve. So when I delight in the Lord, when I delight in the Lord, it means it's supposed to be Eve. When the man stopped delighting in his wife, this is a married seminar, when he stopped delighting in his wife, he left her what was supposed to be Eve for the devil to pick her off. That's exactly what took place. That's another lesson for another time. So true freedom comes with self-discipline and self-management. Are you with me? Here's a question, how free are you? Are you still in Egypt? You in the wilderness? Okay. You know what they said in the scripture, I didn't read it, they said, oh, okay, whatever you tell us to do, Joshua, we will do it. If any of you military in here and anybody that's watching online, you know what I'm talking about. In the army, you don't get to ask the question. You're told when to get up, when to go to bed, when to eat, when not to eat, when to go to the bathroom, when not to go to the bathroom. They are disciplining you to such a degree that you don't take a move without instruction. Why is that? Because when we go into the promised land and we got to fight these giants, watch what I'm about to tell you. Why was this so important? Because the Bible said that all of the men who knew how to fight because they came out of Egypt were dead. There's another whole generation that has not had the experiences nor the responsibility that they had to have from all the way in Egypt and the wilderness. And now they've got to be circumcised so they're in pain, why are you cutting me? And now I've got to take responsibility for myself because you got to train my hands to fight because I've got a giant that's going to be in front of me. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to face giants between now and the coming of the Lord in 2022 that we have never seen. We've never seen it like this in the past couple of years. But ladies and gentlemen, I've watched people that call themselves of faith that just fall out like flies as soon as they smelled the breath of Goliath. I want to fortify this church right here to let you know that somebody's still got to be standing because there's another whole generation coming behind us that are upstairs and out there that sanctuary that have never had that kind of experience of way back there in Egypt, but you have. You know what it meant to be up underneath the heavy hand of the Taskmaster. You know what it meant for them to be able to draw the whip on you and the enemy, take you out. Somebody's got to teach the next generation how to fight. And God says, God's a fighter, y'all. God said, I teach my hands to war. Come on now. So your freedom, your freedom, in freedom you're not employed, you're deployed. You wake yourself up. You wake yourself up. So you graduated 12 years. It's marvelous. You were told when to get up, when to go to bed, when to eat, you didn't like it, you kicked against it, you fussed, all that kind of stuff, but 12 years and now here you are. All right. Here's the key. I'm gonna do what I want to do. Y'all can't see me in here because you said it. Do what I want to do. All right. All right. You got freedom. People don't know what to do with freedom. They don't know how to discipline themselves in freedom. Come on somebody. You got a bunch of wild horses going crazy. So what does this mean? In freedom you have to wake yourself up in the morning. Nobody's calling you to say, get up, get up. Come on, you gotta go to school. Now you gotta show up to work on time. Now you gotta set your own priority. Now you gotta take responsibility for your own life, brush your own teeth. Now you don't have to brush your teeth. Come on somebody. You don't have to brush your teeth, do you? Look at y'all, this ain't no trick question, I'm just asking you. You don't have to brush your teeth, do you? Now all those years, mom and daddy's telling them, brush your teeth, brush your teeth. As a small child, holding your head still, just gnawing down on those teeth, just sawing down on it. Now you're free, you can do what you want to. Took you to the dentist, filled your little mouth and all that kind of stuff up and now you're free to do what you want to do. You don't have to brush your teeth. But how many of you know your teeth will fall right out of your head? See, there's consequences to not taking responsibility. Don't run from the difficulty, run to it, don't avoid it. In the days that are ahead, let faith increase. Tell the devil I changed my mind, I'm gonna turn around and fight. You're not gonna run away from me and the promise, you're not gonna run, devil, you're not gonna run me away from the promise that God gave to me. Now think about Joshua and Caleb, the only two circumcised guys from the old crowd that still was there to go into the promised land. Joshua and Caleb. He said, you know what, I walked around this wilderness for 40 years, a bunch of gripers, mumblers and planters and I'm glad they did. Because God said I'm gonna kill every one of them and the last one dropped, he said we're going to the promised land. Come on, one preacher told me one time, he said I'm only one funeral away from revival at my church, praise the Lord. Come on somebody. We're gonna have revival around here. I don't know how many of y'all gonna make it to January but if you start seeing them fall out, you'll know we're headed to revival. Come on, look at somebody, smile at them right now because some of them are dead right now. You need to call them mortuary. One thing you need to know here as we're coming into a land in here and I'm circling Atlanta, I just wanna let you know that God no matter where the children of Israel were at, this is good comfort for you here tonight, no matter where they were at, God was always with them and never left them. His purposes will never be detoured when God gives to you an assignment and a responsibility. He's not gonna take that back. And here's what you need to know, people will come and people will go but the word of the Lord will stand forever. You better learn how to do this because look at this, think about these desert babies that were born in the desert and the wilderness are walking around and they see their mom and dad die. They see their uncles and their cousins and all these people that were supposed to help them get into the promised land and take responsibility, they're all dying off. Think about this, people come and people go but you better keep on living for Jesus. That's a hard thing, I get it. They're not a soul in this building that has been touched by the hand of the Valley of Death. And I'm gonna tell you, it's been tough but when you learn how to walk through that valley and you come up on the other side because you will come up on the other side. As sure as the children of Israel had to go through the Jordan to get to the promised land, which is a type of death. Look at what happened. They were circumcised and then they had to walk through this valley of the Jordan River to come up on the other side and then they get the first fruit. Are you hearing what I'm saying? God already knows who's coming into your life and who's going in your life and God is not gonna stop the plan of God for your life or what somebody else did or didn't do. Moses, the Bible said, look at this. Moses died and God kept right on speaking to Joshua. God doesn't waste time with the going and coming of people. The more you walk with God, you will agree just like Joshua. As I was with Moses, God said, so I will be with you. And one you need to understand here tonight is this. We're entering into 2022 and I told you Sunday nobody's staying in 2021. I don't wanna go. Well, I don't care. It's like daylight saving time. Come on somebody. It hits and you just go, I hate this. Right? Anybody hate it more than I do? Come on somebody. There it is. I need some light at the end of the day, but it doesn't make any difference. I gotta learn how to deal with what I gotta deal with. You need to understand this point right here. This is very important. God is not into repetition. God's not a God of a circle. Notice what took place in the wilderness. They walked around for 40 years in a circle. God was with them, but God was never going to stay in the wilderness. He was taking them to the Promised Land no matter who it was. In fact, he tells Moses at one point when he's there around the Mount Sinai, he said, you have come past this mountain long enough. Y'all been camped out here? Waiting on something to happen. It's time to get up and here's what he says. Get up and move forward. God likes progress. Forward movement in your life. Forward relationships. God is not stuck anywhere. In the wilderness, like getting you ready to take responsibility for the Promised Land. And nobody but God in the wilderness. Have you ever been there? He was teaching us in the wilderness. I am your provider. I'm your miracle worker. I'm your supplier for your food, your water, your clothes, all of that. I got it all covered. But here's what God's saying to us and what he's saying to you going in this next year. That's not all I am. God is not just a God of taking care of your needs and God is a God of wonders and miracles and signs. And God is expecting us to be able to believe and take responsibility. Listen, take the responsibility. Let me get strong so that I can reach over and lay hands on the sick and see him recover. What about it? Problem is some people get stuck. Stuck in their miracle. Stuck with a person. Stuck with an event. Stuck with a problem. Stuck in the process. God said that was just provision for a few days. That's not the end. You get ready to cross into the promised land. Here's what's going to happen. You're going to know when it's time to cross into the promised land, the man is going to seize. Somebody's going to go. Something, you know, this is going to stop. That's going to happen. This is going to happen. Something's going to be cut away. I know. I'm just telling you by my own experience as I've walked with the Lord, and many of you can testify this same thing. When God gets ready to transition, the grace that you had to carry that burden, suddenly it becomes heavy to carry. Before you were light with it, you could walk with it and it was, you know, it was no big deal. But now it's weighing you down. It's becoming a, it's becoming a weight. God said, get rid of it. I got something better. Question is, are you willing to take responsibility and step into the unknown? I don't know all that's 2022 is going to do, but I know this, God's already there. I'm fixing to shout right now. Did you understand God is not, God is not sitting up there in the council on the table, drawing out the plans for 2022. Isaiah said, he knows the end from the beginning. You understand what I'm saying here tonight? I feel like preaching right now. So here you are. God said, here you are in the end, Joe. You're looking good in the end, but I want you to know that I'm God and I had already planned. No, where are you going? Get back into the end over here. I'm the God who started this thing in the beginning and I know that you look like and thought that somehow you weren't gonna make it, but look at you in the end. What you are in the end is what God said, I saw you in the beginning. So God never starts anything without finishing a thing, did you? God never starts anything without finishing a thing. Are you hearing what I'm saying? I'm gonna say it again. God never starts anything without finishing a thing. So I wanna let you know, before you came into this earth, there were five million little wiggly worms trying to find the egg and all of a sudden, guess what? Guess who it was that he found? Look at your neighbor and tell him, you're a winner, that's what you are. You're the one who came out of all of that. Now hear what I'm telling you. Before you ever thought in your mother and daddy's mind, you need to know that God had already planned out my days. He already knew where I was gonna go. He knew what I was gonna be because God never starts a thing without already finishing a thing. So I came to tell you, it's already done. Your blessings are already in motion. Who you are, what you're gonna do, who's gonna come into your life, who's gonna go out and God's got it all covered. Walk into the Promised Land with a full assurance that God is already in 2022. Somebody is, that's a good place. That's a good place, that's a good place. That's a good place right there. That's that seed, you didn't need it. A man has stopped on me so many times and I turned around and said, hey God, like, where's the bread? You know what God said? It's up ahead. The bread, look at your neighbor telling them, the bread is up ahead. God's not doing what's behind. You already know what's behind. What you wanna do is see what God has in. And for all of you that have had to bury loved ones and I got a phone call just before the service tonight one of my cousins said, my cousin just passed and I need you to come and do this funeral service. Let me tell you something. If you stay where you are in grief and in sorrow, you'll never see what it is. God's already taking them all up ahead and their eyes are seeing what he's already prepared. So if you wanna see them again, don't get stuck where you are, keep walking it out cause one day you're gonna see them again face to face and that is the Promised Land of everything God has assured. You ought to throw your hand up and give God some praise tonight. Don't you get stuck in your sorrow? I can appreciate grief and sorrow, believe me. I've had to deal with mine and there's not a time that I preach a funeral now that I am not personally invested in it. I can hardly keep back my own tears anymore at the age and stage of my life because I already have an investment in that no matter what somebody texts me the other day and said, well, do you ever get numb to it? I just want you to know, I never do. I have to hold things together because it's not my funeral. It's for someone else. I've got to minister to somebody else but it affects me deeply. But you know what? That's the reason why I give him the gospel like I did the other day because when it's all said and done, the only thing we've got is the hand of an almighty God but he's pulling me on. He said, come on child of God don't get stuck in that wilderness. Don't get stuck in your grief. Don't get stuck in your sorrow. You weeping may endure for a night but joy is coming in the morning. I said joy is coming in the morning. If you don't believe that you better lift your eyes because God wants you to take responsibility for your grief and give it to him. Who that was for but that was for you. Here's what happens. Many people mistake the anointing of the wilderness of miracles for the anointing of the responsibility of Canaan. In other words, they think, you know what? God's gonna do it. I don't have to do anything. This is where we've got a lot of people that said, you know what? I saw one preacher begging online the other day for his people to come back to church. Well, let me just tell you something. I love you and all like that. Did you get up and go to your job today? Why? I mean, through COVID and through all this kind of stuff going on, did you get up and go? Well, yeah, pastor, I mean, I got paid. Oh, really? And God don't pay. Are you breathing right now? That's what I want to know. You better understand where you're. Here's what God said, I'm almost done. Here's what he said in Joshua one and nine. He says this, have I not commanded you? Have I not? You know why he said this? And Joshua had not even taken a step toward the Promised Land at this point. He said it twice in the same first few verses. Have I not commanded you to be strong and of good courage? You know why he said that? Because he knew even though Joshua had seen the Promised Land already, it'd been 40 years and he's 40 years old. But how many of you know that the, how many of you know, how many of you know that the Holy Ghost don't age? We think the Holy Ghost is as old as we are. So we settle down. We don't shout no more because we feel like somehow the Holy Ghost says just, well, pastor, you just don't understand how old I am. God ain't asking how old you are. He wants, if that's the truth, then why did Caleb get up and say, I'm 80 years old, I was here 40 years ago, and Joshua, I want that mountain with the biggest giants on it. We are still able to take the land at 80 years old. How many of you know God will give you fruit in your old age? That's what I'm looking for. Cut the tree back a little bit, but give me some fruit. Don't let me die shriveled up. Come on, somebody. If you don't mature, he said be strong, be of good courage, don't be afraid. The Lord is with you wherever you go. Listen, if you don't mature and start maturing and you roll back into complaining and murmuring, back Biden, the Bible said they chided on Moses. Chided on Moses. One day Moses said, God kill him. Next day Moses got under conviction and God said, I'm gonna kill him. Now it'd have been a bad thing if Moe and God got in the same spirit on the same day. We wouldn't be talking about no Hebrew children right now. You're wishing for things in your past? Stop it. People in your house that are worshiping in this house today that are worshiping out of their pain, out of the places they've been through. They're worshiping not because that they feel it, but because they know he's worthy. That's a new responsibility, a new level, a new place of promise. So God is saying to us be strong church going into 2021. Why? Because your destiny and freedom demands a different mentality. Did you hear what I said? Your destiny demands a new mentality. What was that new mentality in numbers? Caleb's mentality. The Bible said he was a man of another spirit. He didn't have the same spirit as the whole bunch of people out there. There was only two of them, Joshua and Caleb. And Caleb stands out, they call him the lion. He, they identify his name as a bulldog. Have you ever seen a bulldog? Have you ever seen a bulldog latch onto something? Have you ever tried to get that bulldog away from whatever it was they latched onto? You can shake that bulldog, you can beat that bulldog, but his jowls have chomped into that thing and you could yank on him for days and he ain't moving. That was the description of Caleb, you know why? Because he'd been walking this thing out for 40 years and the problem is, the problem is, if God ever gives you a vision of what it could be in your life and you ever see it for yourself, oh, ain't nobody in hell that can stop you from reaching for what God said you could have. Lift your eyes, children of God, and look out there for the vision of the Lord. It may take you taking responsibility for some things that you don't even know what you're supposed to be doing. Responsibility for something that you didn't know to do it and have no training in it. How did you give that to me? I don't even know how to do this. Because he put it on the inside of you and now it's up to you to discover what is hidden in Christ. Let me say it like this. The word Christ made the anointing. So what is hidden in the anointing of your life? What is the anointing? It's what God has given you the ability to do. You know what God does? He's really cool about this. Just say, here's something I'm gonna give to you. And then he said, I'm gonna hold you responsible for it. Now you gotta go to school. Now you gotta learn how to do it, how to put it together, whatever that it may be. Then the next thing you know, God brings you into the promised land. Now you didn't get it because somebody handed you a fake certificate. I had this person I grew up with and she wanted to be a psychiatrist. So he just went down. I printed her a diploma of psychiatry on the wall. Then she said, you know what? I wanna be a counselor, certified. He didn't go to the training. He just went down and hung it on the wall. Do this day. And it's the food that go to her for instruction. We're all the time asking somebody else about what do you think, what do you think? What do you think I should do? Well, what do you think I should do? Well, what do you think I should do? Would you stop all of that nonsense and turn your eyes to God and say, God, what is it that you want me to do because you're the one who hid it inside of me and I need to dig it out so I can find out what you want me to do. And when I get ready to listen, I was called to preach at nine years old but you don't even give a hammer to a nine-year-old. Experience after experience, y'all. I learned how to deal in crisis situations by working at the fire department. I learned how to deal with rejection when they told me you're stealing beer down here from this restaurant while you're trying to drop off these crackers. Come on. I learned how to deal with people in customer service in different places that I went. Learn how to deal with crisis situations, all that kind of stuff. And I'm going, but wait a minute, I got this call on my life. I got this call on my life. What do I do with this call? See, it's a hard thing to be anointed to be king and then have to go back and take care of sheep for a long time. David, why was that? Because God needed him to learn. The cameraman's going crazy. I'm gonna try to stand still right now. Got you. Making all them folk out there nervous in Africa. Why did God say, I mean, David got three anointings and he wasn't even on the throne. Are you hearing me? But he had to take responsibility for the little lambs that was in his care. And what happened? When a bear came along, he didn't say, not my circus. He said, oh no, I'm in good shepherd. I care for my sheep. Come on, bear, I got you. Ask David the question. David, have you ever fought a bear? Don't know how to fight no bear? They ain't no manual on fighting a bear? On somebody. I'm out here by myself. All my brothers are at the house. They don't know how to fight no bear. Nobody taught me how to fight a bear, but I'll tell you what I will do. Under the anointing of God, I'll reach up and grab him by the whiskers and whoop him. And the Bible said he took him down. And the next time along comes a lion to try to take out one of his sheep. And David said, oh, I got me a little experienced by fighting that bear. Come on, lion, I got you. Took him and slew him. So by the time that David steps in to his anointing, asking what do y'all think? What do y'all think? What do y'all think? God sets him up and sends him down there by the order of his father all by himself. And he takes responsibility for the entirety of the nation. And he was not even king. He just had an anointing on his life, hidden in Christ. Are you hearing me? And he had to work that thing out and take responsibility. I don't know why y'all cowarded up here in the church house, singing songs and worship and praising God. When that uncircumcised Philistine has come out here to defy all of us, is anybody gonna go fight him? At that point, he said, you know what? I fought the bear and the lion on all in any way. Let him come, let him go. I'm ready to fight. Somebody else tries to put the armor on me. Don't need that, don't put none of your religion on me. Don't put none of your mess on me. Don't put your expectations on me because what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna use what I've always had, a rag and a rock because I know how to work that anointing. Five smooth stones, one for Goliath and four for his brothers. Read the Bible, there was other giants. He said, I'm not coming with one, I'm coming fully loaded. Come on somebody, I ain't playin' Russian roulette, I'm comin' here, I will oozy you. Come on. He slings that thing and down goes Goliath and suddenly he becomes the cherished, anointed one and watch this. You gotta do it. David knew how to deal with the jealousy factor because they started singing songs. All has killed his thousands but David his 10,000. I don't know if that was a song or not but I know this when David come dancing back in under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Everybody knew him saying I'm the king without him saying I've got the anointing, none of that. They were saying, let another man's words praise you. When you take responsibility, other people will look and say, you know what? God is on your life. We know you couldn't have done this by yourself. It is the Lord's doing. How many of you would say with me tonight, Pastor? I need to take more responsibility for areas in my life. Let me see it, maybe finances, maybe relationships, maybe even a job, I don't know what it may be. All right, slip that other hand up in the air right now. Let's just go to God because I'm gonna tell you that's the same thing for me right here. As your pastor, there's some things I've gotta take some responsibility for. Gotta get some order, some priority in. I gotta let some things go. I gotta be able to let some people go. I can't go into promised land if I'm gonna carry everybody with me. So here we go, everybody open your mouth. Everybody stand right there. Just stand because with your hands lifted up that's a sign of surrender. You know what? It says God I'm surrendering to the anointing and the call of God upon my life. Come on, open your mouth and let's pray right here. I want you to take 60 seconds and pray like you've never prayed before. Open your mouth, come on. Come on, come on, come on, come on, open that mouth. Father, right now I renounce all of the flesh and everything that is trying to hold me back from taking responsibility. I refuse to blame other people for what I'm supposed to do and I refuse to get stuck in the wilderness when you've got something up in front of me that my eyes have not seen and my ears have not heard and neither has it entered into my heart what you've got from me, but I know this. It's always gonna be better. It's always gonna be a step up. It's always gonna be another level. So tonight, Lord, I'm taking a step toward my promised land. I don't care what people say. Some may leave me, some may come. I don't care. I'm moving towards my promised land. I'm moving toward my promised land because I've got children behind me waiting on me to take responsibility so that they can see their promises fulfilled. I need to take a step of faith, God, because if I don't, I'm gonna get stuck in this wilderness and die out here and I refuse to die with an anointing on my life in the name of Jesus. I give you everything right now. Open up the things you want me to do and I will do it according to your word. I thank you for it in the mighty name of Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus. Would you do one thing? Would you thank God for still loving you and using you tonight? Can you do that? He don't have to but he's called you and it's hidden in Christ in Jesus. Hallelujah. I love you. Thank you for enduring me here tonight. I know you didn't get to fill out all the blanks but just look at your neighbor and tell him you're looking good and next week he'll keep filling in the blanks. God bless you. Shake hands and be friends. We'll see you Sunday for the incredible children's program. You won't wanna miss it.